Opportunity Route Map Options

[Tesheiner]

Oppy has took another mini-valley of crest after crossing two crests of ripples. Its new channel of valley, will go southward where will meet somewhat buried outcrop. After the outcrop, I seems the track will have more sand deposition. Let see how is the next days. However, the new minivalley, in general view, seems it is going for a long way as Tesheiner has calculated as 100 meters.

Rodolfo, that "100m figure" has nothing to do with a specific trough/"valley" as seen on the rover images but is just a raw measure of a point in which the terrain texture seems to change, and smooth, as seen from the orbital images.

Based on the last nav/pancams I would guess the following path for the next 50m up to the outcrop I think you are talking about.



(Annotated navcam mosaic, sol 846)

[Ant103]

That's much better, Ant, but to be perfectly correct you should say:
Oui, nous sommes plus près de Victoria que d'Erebus.

Because what gregp1962 said: Aren't we just a bit over halfway between Erebus and Victoria?
means the same.

Oops! I haven't seen the little word : over , I must read more patiently before answer the question... This one change the sense of the sentence. Yes, it done : Oui, bla bla bla bla.

[RNeuhaus]

..and what about this dark, stright highway?
[attachment=6199:attachment]
someone is indicating us a path, but do not seems really safe to me...

That picture is tough to trace the route since the crest does not run in a straight parallel line. I am not able to identify fully that the Oppy mini-valley is going to reach to the indicated arrow. I seems that its point is on the other one East mini-valley toward south. However, it is not of a matter importance. So, the Oppy mini-valley, up to now, it is clear to follow only by short distances with stops to observe before to adjust correctly the head direction. That route needs a fine driving.

Rodolfo, that "100m figure" has nothing to do with a specific trough/"valley" as seen on the rover images but is just a raw measure of a point in which the terrain texture seems to change, and smooth, as seen from the orbital images.

Based on the last nav/pancams I would guess the following path for the next 50m up to the outcrop I think you are talking about.



(Annotated navcam mosaic, sol 846)

Yes, I was aware of this since the picture has no good resolution (1meter/pixel as does MRO) but much less, it seems like to have around 5m/pixel so at that resolution is not good enough for close and detailed navigation purposes.

About the tracing route is good except one part with caution (at middle of route), there is some kind of sand loose since it has slight slope of sand, some sand deposition. Hence, the best suggestion would be that Oppy must drive at the lowest point of that part between crest of ripples.

Let take care of .

Rodolfo

[Shaka]

About the tracing route is good except one part with caution (at middle of route), there is some kind of sand loose since it has slight slope of sand, some sand deposition. Hence, the best suggestion would be that Oppy must drive at the lowest point of that part between crest of ripples.

Rodolfo

I'll admit that what inspires caution in you, Rod, scares me silly. I have serious doubts about our ability to get through that area. I hope we don't try.

[Toma B]

First sol848 post-drive images are on Exploratorium...
Looks like a good drive...no stuck wheels to...
This is just beautifull image

[RNeuhaus]

Today at Sol 848, Oppy has advanced around 19 meters during the sol 846.

I took the image of Tesheiner as the reference:



Rodolfo

[RNeuhaus]

Sol 846

Stiched five NAVCAM pictures of L0 with 40% quality due to space easons

(645KB)

Rodolfo

[antoniseb]

B)-->

First sol848 post-drive images are on Exploratorium...
Looks like a good drive...no stuck wheels to...
This is just beautifull image
[/quote]

What is the distance between the rough patches in the track on the right? Is that a reliable way to judge how far the rover hs traveled?

[Tesheiner]

My updated route map (sol 848).

[djellison]

The rough patches are the brackets within the middle and rear wheels that were used to bolt the thing down to the lander deck.

26cm is the wheel diameter I've heard quoted - 81.7cm is thus the diameter

I can make 9 'gaps' between them out until that turning point near the horizon on the left track, so that would be approx 7.4M

Doug

[RNeuhaus]

un-needed quote removed

Everything is correct except "81.7cm is thus the diameter" the diameter as longitud.

Rodolfo

[djellison]

DOH - the circumference

Doug

[CosmicRocker]

Today at Sol 848, Oppy has advanced around 19 meters during the sol 846. ...
Rodolfo

What is the distance between the rough patches in the track on the right? Is that a reliable way to judge how far the rover hs traveled?

... I can make 9 'gaps' between them out until that turning point near the horizon on the left track, so that would be approx 7.4M
Doug

I hadn't previously put a great effort into measuring distances from the imagery, but I had made some rough tests to get a feel for it. These messages suggested to me a test of a combination of methods, and the results seemed worthy of a brief mention.

I measured the distance to a small rock in front of Opportunity in a sol 848 navcam to be 4.2 meters using AlgorimancerPG. I measured the distance to the same rock as visible in a pancam from sol 846 as 23.3 meters, again using AlgorimancerPG, and concluded that the straight line distance between the two points was approximately 19 meters. That result agreed with the number Rodolfo posted.

Then, I went to Doug's lookback measurement using the counted cleat marks back to the last turn, which he measured as 7.4 meters. I realized I could estimate the location of that turn, and measure the distance from the sol 846 location using AlgorimancerPG. The largest error occurs at this step, because I must guess the location of the turn in relation to the much foreshortened location of the 9th cleat mark in a hazcam image. Be that as it may, my estimated distance was 10.2 meters, which, added to 7.4 meters yields 17.6 meters. That's a bit short for an estimate including a turn, but sufficiently close to the straight line distance to make me feel comfortable with such estimates from raw imagery.

This is probably not much of a surprise to those of you who routinely make such estimates, but I was long overdue in going through this drill a bit more rigorously. Perhaps there was a way to do the last part more accurately...

[ustrax]

My updated route map (sol 848).

I'll take my chance...But just as far as Beagle for now...

Possible route to Beagle Crater

[RNeuhaus]

I measured the distance to a small rock in front of Opportunity in a sol 848 navcam to be 4.2 meters using AlgorimancerPG. I measured the distance to the same rock as visible in a pancam from sol 846 as 23.3 meters, again using AlgorimancerPG, and concluded that the straight line distance between the two points was approximately 19 meters. That result agreed with the number Rodolfo posted.

Tom: Very good analysis and coments!

I have own method which is empirical. I took the best distance-sol made by the official JPL. I measured its distance up to a milimeter to take a reference and again I measured the desired distance in milimeters and compute with the reference to get the results. However, this measurement has minor deviation error specially for short distances. I will try to learn to use the AlgoriancerPG tool.

Rodolfo